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History Of The Jews In Kolkata
The history of the Jews in Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, in India, began in the late eighteenth century when adventurous Baghdadi Jewish merchants originally from Aleppo and Baghdad chose to establish themselves permanently in the emerging capital of the British Raj. The community they founded became the hub of the Judeo-Arabic-speaking Baghdadi Jewish trading diaspora in Asia. In the early nineteenth century the community grew rapidly, drawing mostly on Jewish migrants from Baghdad and to a lesser extent on those from Aleppo. Historically it was led by a flourishing merchant elite trading in cotton, jute, spices and opium issued from the leading Jewish families of Baghdad and Aleppo. Mercantile Baghdadi Jewish families based in the city tied together through bonds of marriage or commerce the smaller Baghdadi Jewish communities trading across Asia including in Rangoon, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai with the larger Jewish communities in Mumbai and the Middle East. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Baghdadi Jewish Man In Calcutta Contemplates His Heritage
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey and single-storey . The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English, '' a'' is the indefinite article, with the alternative form ''an''. Name In English, the name of the letter is the ''long A'' sound, pronounced . Its name in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables. History The earliest known ancestor of A is ''aleph''—the first letter of the Phoenician ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lauderdale Road Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue
The Lauderdale Road Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, more commonly called the Lauderdale Road Synagogue, is an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Maida Vale on Lauderdale Road in the City of Westminster, West London, England, in the United Kingdom. The synagogue is the community hub of the S&P Sephardi Community, also known as Qahal Qadosh Shaar Shamayim (Hebrew language, Hebrew translation: "The Holy Congregation of the Gate of Heaven"). The congregation worships in the Nusach Sefard, Sephardi Nusach (Jewish custom), rite, and it is the oldest Jewish community and largest of Sephardi origin in the United Kingdom. The synagogue, completed in 1896, was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1989. History The Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation of London was founded in 1657 following a petition by Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel of Amsterdam to Oliver Cromwell from six Jews living in London who sought permission to worship ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Ezra And Nehemiah
From 1951 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted between 120,000 and 130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel via Iran and Cyprus. The massive emigration of Iraqi Jews was among the most climactic events of the Jewish exodus from the Muslim World. The operation is named after Ezra and Nehemiah, who led groups of Jews from exile in Babylonia to return to Judea in the 5th century BC, as recorded in the books of the Hebrew Bible that bear their names. Most of the $4 million cost of the operation was financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Background 1940s A change in Iraqi Jewish identity occurred after the violent '' Farhud'' against the Jews of Baghdad, on June 1–2, 1941 following the collapse of the ''Golden Square'' regime of Rashid Ali al-Kaylani, during which at least 180 Jews were killed during two days of pogrom mob attacks in the community. In some accounts the ''Farhud'' marked the turning point for Iraq's Jews. Other historians, however, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Communist Revolution
The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution, social and political revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which afterwards became the ruling party of China. The political revolution resulted in major social changes within China and has been looked at as a model by revolutionary Communist movements in other countries. During the preceding century, termed the century of humiliation, the decline of the Qing dynasty and the rise of foreign imperialism caused escalating social, economic, and political problems in China. The Qing collapsed in 1912 and were replaced with the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China, which had itself fallen into Warlord Era, warring factions by 1917. A small group of urban intellectuals, inspired by the October Revolution and European socialist ideas, founded the CCP in 1921. They creat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bengal Famine Of 1943
The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 800,000–3.8 million people died, in the Bengal region (present-day Bangladesh and West Bengal), from starvation, malaria and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions, poor British wartime policies and lack of health care. Millions were impoverished as the crisis overwhelmed large segments of the economy and catastrophically disrupted the social fabric. Eventually, families disintegrated; men sold their small farms and left home to look for work or to join the British Indian Army, and women and children became homeless migrants, often travelling to Calcutta or other large cities in search of organised relief. Bengal's economy had been predominantly agrarian at that time, with between half and three-quarters of the rural poor subsisting in a "semi-starved cond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Calcutta Killing
Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) was the day the All-India Muslim League decided to take a "direct action" using general strikes and economic shut down to demand a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. Also known as the 1946 Calcutta Riots, it soon became a day of communal violence in Calcutta. It led to large-scale violence between Muslims and Hindus in the city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in the Bengal province of British India. The day also marked the start of what is known as ''The Week of the Long Knives''. While there is a certain degree of consensus on the magnitude of the killings (although no precise casualty figures are available), including their short-term consequences, controversy remains regarding the exact sequence of events, the various actors' responsibility and the long-term political consequences. There is still extensive controversy regarding the respective responsibilities of the two main communities, the Hindus and the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
8 Middleton Street, Calcutta, Home Of Moise Abraham Sassoon, In The Early 20th Century
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. Etymology English ''eight'', from Old English '', æhta'', Proto-Germanic ''*ahto'' is a direct continuation of Proto-Indo-European '' *oḱtṓ(w)-'', and as such cognate with Greek and Latin , both of which stems are reflected by the English prefix oct(o)-, as in the ordinal adjective ''octaval'' or ''octavary'', the distributive adjective is ''octonary''. The adjective ''octuple'' (Latin ) may also be used as a noun, meaning "a set of eight items"; the diminutive '' octuplet'' is mostly used to refer to eight siblings delivered in one birth. The Semitic numeral is based on a root ''*θmn-'', whence Akkadian ''smn-'', Arabic ''ṯmn-'', Hebrew ''šmn-'' etc. The Chinese numeral, written (Mandarin: ''bā''; Cantonese: ''baat''), is from Old Chinese ''*priāt-'', ultimately from Sino-Tibetan ''b-r-gyat'' or ''b-g-ryat'' which also yielded Tibetan '' brgyat''. It has been argued that, as the cardinal nu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dawud Pasha Of Baghdad
Dawūd Pasha of Baghdad ( '; ka, დაუდ ფაშა; ) ( 1767–1851), born ''Davit Manvelashvili'' ('' ka, დავით მანველაშვილი'' in Tbilisi, Georgia, of Georgian origin) was the last Mamluk ruler of Ottoman Iraq, from 1816 to 1831. Biography Iraq at this period was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire but in practice largely autonomous. Mamluks were originally freed slaves who had converted to Islam and were assigned to military and administrative duties in the Ottoman Empire. Mamluk rulers governed in the territory that became Iraq, acquiring increasing autonomy from the Ottoman Sultan in Constantinople, from 1704 to 1831. The history of modern Iraq's boundaries can be traced to 1749, when the Ottoman Sultan extended the authority of the Mamluk Wali (Governor) of Basra to include the eyalet (province) of Baghdad, initiating a period of Mamluk rule that lasted until 1831. After seizing control of Baghdad Eyalet in 1816–1817, D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surat Thani Province
Surat Thani (, ), often shortened to Surat, is the largest of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It lies on the western shore of the Gulf of Thailand. Surat Thani means 'city of good people', a title given to the city by King Vajiravudh (Rama VI); Surat Thani is therefore the sole province in Southern Thailand for which the native name is in the Central Thai language. Geography Surat Thani Province, located in Thailand, is bordered by the provinces of Chumphon to the north, Nakhon Si Thammarat to the east, Krabi to the south, Phang Nga to the southwest, and Ranong to the northwest. The geographic landscape of Surat Thani is diverse. The central region of the province is dominated by the coastal plain of the Tapi River, characterized by a mix of grassland, rubber trees, palm oil trees, and coconut plantations. To the west lie the limestone mountains of the Phuket range, largely enveloped in forest, home to the renowned Khao Sok National Park. The easter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shalom Obadiah Cohen
Shalom Aaron Obadiah Cohen (1762-1836) was a Jewish jeweler, merchant, and community leader known for founding the Jewish community in Kolkata. Life and career Early life Shalom Aaron Obadiah Cohen was born in Aleppo in 1762 to Aaron Obadiah Cohen and Chana Dayan. Much of what is known about his early life originates from his diary, spanning from 1789 to 1834. The manuscript was written in Judeo-Arabic. First journey to India Cohen traveled to India in 1789 via Baghdad, Hillah, and Basra. From Basra, at the time an important port for merchants, he embarked on a six-week voyage on a British ship heading to Mumbai. He first arrived in Surat for a five-month stay between September 1790 and April 1791. While some scholars have speculated that he left due to the increasingly perilous position of Jews in Aleppo and Baghdad, the main reason for his journey was likely to gauge the potential for growing his business in India. Surat Cohen returned to India on a more permanent basis in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another, they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods: *Between 1612 and 1757, the East India Company set up "factories" (trading posts) in several locations, mostly in coastal India, with the consent of the Mughal emperors, Maratha Empire or local rulers. Its rivals were the merchant trading companies of Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, and France. By the mid-18th century three ''Presidency towns'': Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, had grown in size. *During the period of Company rule in India, 1757–1858, the Company gradually acquired sovereignty over large parts of India, now called "Presidencies". However, it also increasingly came under British government oversight, in effect sharing sovereig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
